How to Tell if Your House is Haunted

How to Tell if Your House Is HauntedWarning Signs of the Paranormal in Your Home

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can EditHaunted houses may be fun to visit on Valentine's Day with a sweetheart,
but they are not necessarily fun places to live. If you feel that your
house may be haunted, here are some steps to find out if it really is.

A haunted house is a house or
other building often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits
of the deceased who may have been former residents or were familiar
with the property.

Supernatural activity inside homes is
said to be mainly associated with violent or tragic events in the
building's past such as murder, accidental death, or suicide.

In 2005, Gallup polls conducted in
three countries—the United States, Canada, and Great Britain—showed that
more people believe in haunted houses than any of the other paranormal
items tested, with 37% of Americans, 28% of Canadians, and 40% of
Britons believing.

Steps

1.Determine if the haunting is a valid case. There are
different levels of phenomena in hauntings because they aren't all the
same. There can be single phenomenons and many different phenomena in
hauntings. 2. Investigate to see if anything seems out of the ordinary.

Listen for any other voices or noises if you are home
alone. You will most likely hear these sounds in the distance. Some
sounds you might hear in a haunted house would be footsteps, knocks,
banging, rapping, scratching sounds, or sounds of something being
dropped. These noises can range from being very quiet to extremely
loud.

Check to see if you ever find doors opened or
closed when you are certain the door wasn't positioned like that before.
Also, look for electrical items turning on and off unexpectedly. You
will probably not witness this type of phenomena taking place.

Discover if items are disappearing and
reappearing. Look in a certain spot for something that is always there;
if it's not, keep your eyes open. Usually, the item will be found in an
obvious spot ranging from a day to a few weeks. It would be as if
someone or something took an object for a while, then returned it to its
normal spot.

Check for unexplained shadows. This means you
might be seeing shapes and shadows from the corner of your eye. The
shadows will probably be similar in form to a human, but sometimes they
can be smaller and hard to distinguish.

Notice if you feel like you're being
watched or touched by someone or something that isn't visible. For
example, something might brush up against your arm when you are standing
in an empty room. An extreme and very rare example would be getting
slapped or punched by the invisible someone or something.

Listen for muffled cries and whispers. You might
hear music playing from an unknown area or your name being said by
someone or something who isn't there.

Look for moving objects. Some examples would be
dinner plates moving across the table, pictures falling off walls, and
furniture sliding across the floor.

Pay attention to cold spots as some believe that this means there is a ghost in the room.

Pay attention to unusual smells (i.e. perfume, smoke, flowers, food) that come from nowhere or out of the blue.

3.Try to find rational reasons for what is happening. It
may be hard to dismiss some of the more extreme phenomena. The
phenomena will most likely be taken more seriously if more than one
person witnesses it happening.
4. Locate some help in proving your house isn't haunted. The local
plumber might be able to help you explain why there are banging noises
around the pipes. Carpenters can fix tables that wobble on their own or
doors that close by themselves. Family or friends might be able to offer
new explanations for why you are hearing or seeing a certain
something. 5. Keep a journal and a tape recorder by your side. Write down the date,
time, and what the phenomena did in your journal when something unusual
happens. If you are hearing strange noises a lot, it is good to record
what you hear on the tape recorder for evidence. By doing this, you will
be able to help out the paranormal investigators if you would like them
to come to your house. 6. Do historical research. Haunted houses are usually the site of a
historical tragedy of some sort. Find out who has owned the house
before, and if anything unusual has happened in that home. A good
reference librarian, your town hall, historical society, even history
teacher can help get your started.

Contact the people who have lived in your house
before you. Ask them if they ever noticed anything unusual, strange, or
unexplained behavior while they were living there. If multiple people
have lived in your house before you, be sure to contact as many as
possible.

7.Contact a paranormal investigator. Have them visit
your house, and ask them if they notice anything unusual. Only call one
if you are very certain your house is actually haunted. If you believe
that your family may be in some kind of danger with the phenomena being
in your house, don't be afraid to call for help as soon as possible. 8. Follow the guidance of investigators. If your house turns out to be
haunted, then listen to what others tell you to do. If you don't like
your house being haunted, try sprinkling holy water in the areas that
seem most haunted.

Paranormal Help

The following organizations are here to help those who may feel they
need assistance with any type of paranormal activity that may be
occurring within their home or life.

Rhine Research CenterThe Rhine Research Center is an integrative center for the study of
consciousness. We are a hub for ground-breaking research and educational
activities on the nature of human consciousness – its reach, its reality,
its durability, its healing capacity, and its spiritual dimension.

The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS)Taps
promises to bring professionalism, personality, and confidentiality
to each case we investigate. We understand that it is tough
to call someone like us, and we respect your right to privacy.

Do it Yourself Paranormal Investigation

Tips on Searching for the Paranormal

Here is a detailed video on guides, tips and hints into performing your own paranormal investigation.Hopefully this will be a useful tool in the art of paranormal investigation if you are a novice or an interested person.

Types of Hauntings

Residual HauntingIn the terminology of ghost hunting, residual hauntings, also known as restligeists (German loan word from restlich meaning "residual" and geist meaning "ghost"), are repeated playbacks of auditory, visual, olfactory, and other sensory phenomena that are attributed to a traumatic event, life-altering event, or a routine event of a person or place, like an echo or a replay of a videotape of past events.

Ghost hunters and related paranormal television programs say that a residual haunting, unlike an intelligent haunting, does not directly involve a spiritual entity aware of the living world and interacting with or responding to it. One of the first to promulgate the hypothesis of residual haunting was Thomas Charles Lethbridge in books such as Ghost and Ghoul, written in 1961.

Intelligent HauntingIn the terminology of ghost hunting, an intelligent haunting (also known as a classic or traditional haunting) differs from a residual haunting, being a haunting in which a spiritual entity is aware of the living world and interacts with or responds to it. Ghost hunters and paranormal writers say that such a ghost or spirit may be able to communicate with the living, not just by talking, but by moving inanimate objects such as furniture or toys.

Tips

Don't move out of the house unless nothing else
seems to work. It's entirely possible to co-exist with "roommates" from
beyond with a little work.

If you live in an apartment, you may be hearing voices from surrounding rooms.

In the state of Connecticut, USA, if you are
intending to purchase a house reputed to be haunted, your real estate
agent must disclose this fact, so be sure to ask. (It's really a law!)
The same law has been enacted in several other states.

Do not panic if you find your home inhabited by spirits, there is little evidence they can (or will) actually harm anyone.

If you are certain a spirit is living in your house politely ask them to leave.

Don't provoke them. The activity might stay the same or even worsen.

It has been suggested that renovations to your home may stir up paranormal activity

Warnings

Don't try to investigate a haunted house by
yourself if you don't have experience. Always contact someone who
specializes in this type of thing to help you.

Sometimes natural phenomena occurs that can make a
house "haunted." Be sure to investigate thoroughly before doing
something drastic (such as moving out).